Vacationers and other travelers who travel by motor vehicle often also like to take bicycles with them on their travels. This necessitates a means for carrying the bicycles in a manner secure enough that the rigors of road travel will not cause the bicycles to come loose and possibly fly off during travel.
For many vehicles, it is possible to mount a hitch to the vehicle in a normal manner and then mount a bicycle rack on the hitch. Normal hitches are mounted to the frame of the vehicle on the underside of the vehicle and normally at the back. For some vehicles, for example lightweight fender-less trailers, such an arrangement is impossible since there is no place to mount a regular hitch. In addition, when a towing vehicle, such as a car or a truck, is towing a trailer, the hitch of the towing vehicle is being used to tow the trailer and not to mount a bicycle rack. Therefore, there is a need to provide a means for mounting a bicycle rack in situations where normal hitches are inadequate.
Some attempts have been made in the art but have proven to be inadequate for one reason or another. The Pro Rac™ Tongue Mounted Bike Rack is useful for pop-up trailers but cannot accommodate non-pop-up trailers since the bicycles are carried above the trailer. United States Patent Publication 2004/0035998 published Feb. 26, 2004 describes a multipositionable apparatus for mounting a variety of accessories, but cannot function to both tow a trailer and mount a bicycle rack. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,219,105, 6,644,525 and 6,695,184 all describe bicycle carriers that utilize normal hitches on towing vehicles thereby preventing the opportunity to also tow a trailer. U.S. Pat. No. 2,512,267 discloses a fender mounted bicycle rack, which would be useless on a fender-less trailer. U.S. Pat. No. 5,794,959 discloses a trailer hitch assembly for hauling a motorcycle which provides for a cradle to hold the front wheel of the motorcycle. In this case, the trailer itself must be specifically designed to haul the motorcycle, and not designed for another purpose.